1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a head protection device and a guiding bracket, and in particular, to a head protection device and a guiding bracket that can smoothly guide an air bag to the vehicle cabin side while bearing a load caused by inflation of the air bag at expansion of the air bag, and can absorb a load of a passenger's head at small collision such that an inflator is not activated.
2. Description of the Related Art
A conventionally known head protection device includes an air bag and a guiding bracket (Refer to, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2006-175920). For example, as shown in FIG. 9, the patent document discloses a head protection device 101 including an air bag 102 that presses a ceiling material 106 from between a pillar 105 and the ceiling material 106 to open the ceiling material 106, and expands and inflates downward when an inflator is activated to flow a gas into the airbag 102, and a metal guiding bracket 103 that guides the air bag 102 expanded and inflated by the inflator to the vehicle cabin side. The guiding bracket 103 includes upper and lower guiding walls 111 and 112 that store the air bag 102 and a coupling wall 110 that couples ends of the guiding walls 111 and 112 to each other, and has a substantially U-shape in a vertical section.
According to the technique disclosed in the patent document, at expansion of the air bag 102, the guiding wall 111 having one free end can smoothly guide the air bag 102 to the vehicle cabin side while bearing the load caused by expansion of the air bag 102. However, at small collision such that the inflator is not activated, the guiding wall 111 cannot absorb a load of the passenger's head, if any.